How to assess customer success manager skills

In today’s fiercely competitive business landscape, customer satisfaction is key to the success and growth of any organization. Customer success managers ensure that consumers are kept happy while fostering long-term relationships and driving client loyalty. 

With the rising importance of the customer success management position, it has become crucial to assess and evaluate the skills of potential employees. Instead of using traditional, time-consuming methods of screening resumes, you can conduct high-quality, targeted pre-employment testing. 

In this article, we explore what skills to look for in a customer success manager. We also explain the importance of these skills and outline exactly how TestGorilla can help you hire the most appropriate candidates for each position.

What is a customer success manager skills assessment? 

A customer success manager skills assessment is a set of tests that you can use to evaluate if candidates have the appropriate skills, traits, and capabilities listed in your job description for the role. A high-quality assessment will effectively evaluate how candidates can manage customer relationships and drive business success. 

Usually, customer success management assessments involve various soft skills tests, including communication, organization, critical thinking, and interpersonal skills. Some also include hard skills tests covering specific programs, computer proficiency, and customer success management concepts. 

Why are customer success management skills important? 

Highly skilled customer success managers are vital for the prosperity of any business. Here are some of the top reasons why you should look for employees with strong customer success management skills. 

Smooth customer service

Strong customer success management skills will ensure your employees are able to provide a high level of customer service across the board. The ability to answer questions and communicate ideas clearly will boost customer satisfaction and, in turn, overall revenue. 

Although your customer success managers won’t necessarily be providing direct customer service, they should still be able to answer questions during onboarding, renewal, and during any direct communication. 

Customer onboarding

Onboarding is a key part of the customer journey, and a strong onboarding process will ensure customers are able to get the most out of your product. 

Skilled customer success managers can help consumers understand your product’s features and capabilities and how they can use them to achieve their objectives. 

A customer success manager will guide customers through the purchasing and onboarding process, answering questions and helping them overcome any initial challenges. 

Successful onboarding can significantly reduce the number of returned products or refund requests. 

Customer retention

Customer success managers who can provide a good experience will help improve your customer retention rate. They can understand client needs and manage customer relationships to ensure long-term satisfaction and loyalty. 

This significantly boosts the chances that customers will renew their contract or return to your company for a follow-up purchase. 

Customer success managers can also identify customers who are at high risk of canceling their contracts. Taking prompt action can help reduce churn and ensure more customers remain loyal to your company for longer. 

Upselling and cross-selling opportunities

Customer success managers are perfectly positioned to identify upselling and cross-selling opportunities. They can work alongside your sales team to recommend additional products or services at the optimal time. 

This can help grow your revenue and customer lifetime value. Additionally, it can play a role in developing customer relationships by making them feel like you’re always there to help. 

Proactive issue resolution

Skilled customer success managers can check in with clients and ensure they’re happy with your products and/or service. If issues are identified, the customer success manager can resolve problems in a fast, efficient manner. 

The ability to proactively identify issues before they become big problems will reduce the risk of unhappy customers moving away from your company. Identifying problems early often makes them much easier to fix, saving valuable time and resources. 

What skills and traits are important for customer success managers? 

Customer success managers need to be adept in a range of skills to excel in their roles. Let’s take a look at the most important skills and traits for job success.

Communication

Strong communication skills enable customer success managers to make effective contact. These should include the ability to communicate both verbally and in writing. 

This ensures that your employees can understand customer needs and provide clear guidance and support where required. Good communication skills can also make your upselling and cross-selling efforts more persuasive and successful. 

What’s more, strong communication abilities will enable your customer success managers to work and collaborate effectively with the rest of your team. This will boost overall efficiency and speed up workplace processes, saving you time and money. 

Empathy

Empathy enables customer success managers to proactively address a client’s concerns and issues. They can build strong relationships and smoothly handle customer frustrations and dissatisfaction. 

This, in turn, ensures that your customers are as happy as possible with your service. Satisfied customers are more likely to remain with you as ongoing subscribers or regular purchasers. 

Technical skills

Most customer success management roles require the use of specific software for customer relationship management (CRM) platforms. Strong applicants should have the required technical ability. 

If you use a CRM platform like Salesforce or Zendesk, for example, you should ensure that prospective customer success managers are familiar with it. Other technical skills might include data analysis or using other software, such as help desk programs. 

Meanwhile, customer success managers should also understand the technical aspects of your product or service. This will enable them to communicate smoothly with customers and answer technical questions fast and efficiently. 

Customer service

Customer success managers are often the main point of contact between a customer and your business. This means that they should be able to provide a high level of customer service to ensure all clients maintain a strong, positive image of your company. 

It’s also important to provide the appropriate level of service at each stage of the customer lifecycle. 

Initially, for example, your customer success managers should focus on building a relationship rather than overselling your business. Post-purchase, your interactions will likely be more focused on proactive check-ins and ensuring the customer is satisfied with every aspect of your service. 

Problem-solving

Customer success managers who can identify and solve problems independently are invaluable to your business. They can spot and resolve customer issues effectively while ensuring customer satisfaction is maintained throughout. 

Additionally, candidates with strong problem-solving skills often have critical-thinking abilities and are able to break down complex situations into more manageable components. 

Organizational skills

Most customer success managers work with numerous clients, who are often spread across multiple products or projects. Therefore, customer success managers need to be organized with strong project- and time-management skills. 

This will ensure they are efficient and able to deliver the required level of customer service. Organized employees also make fewer mistakes and contribute to overall business growth and productivity. 

Continuous learning ability

The modern business landscape is continuously changing, which means your customer success managers should be adaptable and willing to learn new skills. This will enable them and your business to remain at the forefront of the industry and stay ahead of the curve. 

Skills and traits tests

TestGorilla offers more than 300 tests that you can mix and match to create the perfect skills assessment. Here are some of the most appropriate tests for assessing customer success manager skills. 

Customer Success Manager (SaaS) test

With TestGorilla’s Customer Success Manager (SaaS) test, you can evaluate a candidate’s ability to build and maintain strong customer relationships. It also assesses competencies in identifying and resolving customer issues using a dynamic data-driven approach. 

This is an advanced test that’s designed for positions requiring a significant amount of customer success management experience. The 10-minute time limit ensures that successful candidates are able to work well under pressure. 

Applicants who perform well in this test will have the skills to successfully manage a team of customer success managers. They can make informed decisions and put the correct processes in place to ensure maximum customer satisfaction. 

Customer Service test

For lower-level customer success management positions requiring less experience, TestGorilla’s Customer Service test might be more appropriate. It’s a 10-minute, intermediate-level test that enables you to identify candidates with strong customer service skills. 

It uses real-life scenarios to ensure responses are as accurate as possible. Candidates will be presented with a situation and asked to select the most appropriate response. You can expect well-performing applicants to be able to understand customer inquiries, interact in a professional manner, and present effective solutions to customer concerns. 

Communication test

You can use our Communication test to assess an individual’s ability to communicate in a clear, professional manner. Top-performing candidates will be able to listen well, communicate clearly and concisely, and offer feedback where appropriate. 

It assesses aspects of both written and verbal communication, ensuring that successful applicants have strong all-around communication skills. Applicants will also be assessed on their ability to use professional etiquette, interpret non-verbal cues, and summarize messages. 

Problem Solving test

Strong problem-solving skills are one of the traits that set excellent customer success managers apart from the crowd. You can evaluate these using TestGorilla’s short Problem Solving test. 

This intermediate-level test is designed to evaluate an individual’s ability to interpret data and make decisions, identify and solve problems, and respond appropriately to complex situations. Candidates must select the correct answers in a fast, efficient manner. 

You can expect individuals who perform well in this test to make appropriate decisions in high-pressure customer service environments.   

Critical Thinking test

Our Critical Thinking test goes one step further, and you might find it useful for identifying candidates with exceptional critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Individuals who perform well in this test are able to evaluate complex information and make fast, accurate decisions. 

This is crucial in a customer success management setting, where split-second decisions can be the difference between a happy customer and a canceled subscription or missed sale. 

During the test, applicants will be presented with written statements that they must analyze and then select the correct answer. The 10-minute time limit ensures that well-performing candidates can think and make the right decisions fast and efficiently. 

Zendesk CS test

Our Zendesk CS test is a technical skills test that’s useful if you use Zendesk support products. It evaluates an applicant’s proficiency in and familiarity with the program. 

The test covers everything from general Zendesk knowledge to ticket handling, managing statistics, and using automations. Strong applicants should be able to use Zendesk software with little to no training. 

HubSpot CRM test

You can use our HubSpot CRM test to assess applicants’ ability to use HubSpot tools. This popular CRM platform is widely used by customer success managers, and familiarity with it is important if your company uses it. 

The test has a range of questions about the platform and how it can be used to deliver a premium customer experience. Strong applicants should be able to use HubSpot software with little to no training. 

Salesforce CRM test

Another very popular CRM program is Salesforce. If your company uses Salesforce, you can assess candidates’ ability to use the software with our Salesforce CRM test.

It covers everything from managing leads and opportunities to accounts and contacts. These skills are invaluable for customer success managers, and successful applicants should be able to jump straight into Salesforce with little to no training.  

How TestGorilla can help you find the right customer success manager

TestGorilla’s powerful pre-employment screening platform makes finding the right customer success managers easier than ever. We have a library of more than 300 tests that you can use to evaluate a range of soft and hard skills, including customer success management skills, customer service ability, and more. 

Each of these tests has been scientifically validated, and you can combine up to five tests to create a custom pre-employment assessment. What’s more, you can view test-taker scores from the TestGorilla dashboard and rank your top candidates based on these results. 

Ready to give it a go? Sign up for TestGorilla’s Free plan today!